Welcome to the website for The Elstree Project. The Elstree Project is an on-going oral history project, created in partnership between Howard Berry of the University of Hertfordshire and Bob Redman and Paul Welsh MBE of volunteer group Elstree Screen Heritage. Since September 2010, veterans of major film and TV productions have been interviewed about their careers and life in the film industry. We have recorded interviews, hosted and organised screenings of films made at Elstree in three 'Elstree Film Seasons' and we have made our own films from the content in our interviews.
We love all the stories told by the stars and the directors, but we also want to tell the stories that you don't normally get to hear. The stories of the props painters, the cameramen, the stills photographers, and the riggers. In the course of making these interviews we have discovered tales about what it really was like to work with Roger Moore on The Saint, how the backdrops were matted in for Ivanhoe, and what Elizabeth Taylor's response was when one of the crew suggested her diamond engagement ring was from Woolworths!
An excerpt from our most recent interview, with film and television actor Brian Blessed:
We have found out about how Darth Vader's costume was painted for Star Wars, the craft of cinematography from the cameraman on Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, and just quite how much attention you need to pay to continuity from the script supervisor on The Shining. And we also have discovered some amazing stories that no one has ever heard, including a heartbreaking story about the temporary closure of Elstree Studios in the 1990s. We want to share these stories with you.
The Elstree Project will interest fans of film and television from the 1950s to the present day.
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